David Robertson may not even have the oddest injury of the spring for any pitcher named David in the American League East.

Rays left-hander David Price Thursday's game after two innings with what the team called a "minor neck spasm." How does one suffer a minor neck spasm? Well, apparently by toweling off the beck of his head just a bit too hard.

Really.

Don't believe me? Ask Price.

If you didn't click on the video, Price said it's happened to him before and he shouldn't miss any time. [Tampa Bay Times]

• Cardinals right-hander Chris Carpenter may not make his scheduled start on Monday because of neck stiffness that has halted his training.

Carpenter canceled his throwing session on Wednesday and said Thursday he's been bothered by the neck stiffness. He was scheduled to throw Friday, but that may not happen, either. He said there's no timetable for his return. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

• Manny Ramirez may return from a sore back on Saturday against the Reds. Ramirez has played two games this spring and was scratched on Wednesday. [MLB.com]

• Nationals prospect Bryce Harper was a late scratch from Thursday's exhibition game because of a tightness in his left calf. He's listed as day-to-day, but expects to play either Friday or Saturday.

Harper said he didn't feel the tightness when hitting, but did feel it when he was in the outfield. [Washington Times]

• Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche played in a minor-league intrasquad game on Thursday, but he's still limited on his injured foot. He hit a home run during the game, but he wasn't able to get a real feel how his foot felt. He said he may be able to play in a big-league exhibition by Saturday. [MASNSports.com]

• Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis will make his spring debut on March 14. Markakis had abdominal surgery in the offseason. He'll DH at first. [Baltimore Sun]

• Reds left-hander Bill Bray had been shut down for two weeks with a groin injury and then stopped his scheduled bullpen session short on Wednesday. Reds manager Dusty Baker told reporters that could lead to Aroldis Chapman moving back to the bullpen.

The Reds have tried stretching Chapman out and using him as a starter this spring, but he could be back in the bullpen with Bray's injury. Chapman is starting Friday in a split-squad game against the Giants. [Cincinnati Enquirer]

• The Rangers' Brad Hawpe was scratched from a B game against the White Sox because of a setback with his right hamstring. Hawpe was supposed to lead off every inning in his first action of the spring, but instead "overdid it" getting ready on Wednesday.

• Marlins right-hander Anibal Sanchez hasn't thrown in a spring training game yet, and there's no telling when he will return from the tightness in his throwing shoulder. He's expected to throw for the team in Jupiter on Friday. [Miami Herald]​​​​​For more baseball news, subscribe to the RSS feed and "like" us on Facebook. Or ...

As for Lannan's allure on the market (besides the general interest that surrounds any starting pitcher up for trade), the Nats will no doubt find suitors. Lannan will be arbitration-eligible for the third time after the upcoming season and is slated for free agency following the 2013 campaign.

In 2011, Lannan posted a 3.70 ERA in 184.2 innings. However, Lannan's peripherals (i.e., things like strikeouts, walks, and home run rates) suggest he was a bit lucky last season. Most of the projection systems tab him for a 2012 ERA that ranges from slightly better than league average to slightly worse than league average. Still, a guy who can give you average-ish innings from the back end has value. Since the Nats will be dealing from a position of strength, trading Lannan makes sense.

On the other hand, almost no team uses just five starters for an entire season, and given Strasburg's probable innings limit and Wang's injury history (and the Nats' legitimate designs on contention), depth might be more necessity than luxury for D.C.

Notes on some maladies and afflictions from around baseball on Tuesday ...

Rays third sacker and AL MVP candidate Evan Longoria has no idea when his injured right hand will allow him to join the lineup. He might, however, begin hitting off a tee on Wednesday. [Tampa Tribune]

Brewers right fielder Corey Hart was recently diagnosed with torn cartilage in his knee and on Tuesday underwent successful arthroscopic surgery this week. He'll miss three to four weeks almost certainly open the season on the DL, just as he did in 2011. [MLB.com]

Phillies second baseman Chase Utley still has no clear timetable for his return from chronic knee problems.

“We talked about him not playing for the first week or two weeks,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “We’re going to ease him into it. We know he’ll be ready when the bell rings. We just want to make sure he’s as fresh and as healthy as he can possibly be on Opening Day.” [The Zo Zone]

David Wright of the Mets is hampered by a ribcage injury, and he won't be able to see any Grapefruit League action until at least next week, manager Terry Collins told reporters. Wright is lifting weights and not experiencing any discomfort, but the Mets are taking a conservative approach with their third baseman. [Newark Star-Ledger]

Good news for the wondrously named Freddie Freeman, who was in the lineup on Tuesday well ahead of schedule. Freeman dislocated his left kneecap early in camp and was initially expected to be out for up to two weeks.

“I felt good,” Freeman said afterward. “I had no problems. I wasn’t even thinking about it. I’m not going to go out there if I didn’t feel like I could do it. It felt good swinging. It felt good fielding. I was able to come off the bag when holding on runners and go back just in case there was a throw back." [Atlanta Journal Constitution]

Nationals outfielder Michael Morse, fresh off his 31-homer breakout campaign of 2011, was a late scratch today because of a strained lat muscle. He's listed as day-to-day. [Washington Post]

Astros catcher Humberto Quintero will receive a cortisone shot on Wednesday and then head back to Houston to have his injured back examined. He hopes to be in the lineup on Friday against Toronto. [MLB.com]

We at CBSSports.com don't have a scouting guru, but prospect rankings are incredibly popular among fans these days, so we aren't about to neglect covering the preseason rankings. So this post will contain the consensus top 60 prospects from the baseball world. I've gone through and averaged out the rankings from the five major outlets that do them.

Why 60? Well, the outlets usually rank 100 (Baseball Prospectus does 101), but after around 50 there's nothing close to a consensus. It's a muddled mess of disagreement. There were 147 players mentioned between the five top 100 (or 101) lists and once you get north of a certain handful of can't-miss prospects, the rankings are all over the place. Even in the top 60 below, you've got someone like Wily Peralta from the Brewers' system. He was ranked 39th by ESPN.com and 94th by Baseball Prospectus. Hak-Ju Lee of the Rays was ranked 12th, 20th, 44th, 46th and 67th, respectively, by the five outlets.

• If a player went unranked by any outlet, he received a value of 105 in the calculated average. More than one of those would easily be enough to knock a guy from the ranks, so everyone above with a "UR" next to his name in the "worst rank" category above was ranked by four of the five outlets.

• Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish was ranked fourth by Baseball America and ignored by all other outlets. I've got to believe the four outlets that didn't rank the Japanese phenom don't consider him a prospect. Which is weird, because most define "prospect" as someone who still has "rookie" eligibility. Darvish still does, but they have the right to rank whomever they wish.

• Athletics' outfielder Yoenis Cespedes was ranked 20th by Goldstein and 14th by Baseball America while the other three outlets declined to rank him. My response to this would be similar to that of Darvish.

• Goldstein mentioned that he'd rank Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler 39th, so I actually plugged him in and bumped everyone else down one spot. After all, I fully expect Soler to be signed sometime this season. Still, Soler didn't make the top 60 above because no one else ranked him.

• Nick Franklin (SS, Mariners) would have easily made the top 60 here, but Goldstein left him unranked.

• Will Middlebrooks (3B, Red Sox) would have easily made the top 60 here, but Law left him unranked.

• For the complete lists of each, please note I linked to them in the introduction above. Just click on it and go (of course, ESPN.com and Baseball Prospectus are pay sites, so you can't see those for free). Those guys all focus on scouting throughout the year as their primary job, so they know more than you and I on this front.

Harper, 19, will start in right field and hit seventh for the Nationals in Kissimmee, Fla. on Saturday against former Nationals right-hander Livan Hernandez. It should be noted, several veterans aren't scheduled to make the trip -- including Jayson Werth. Werth, who had missed several days of workouts with back spasms, is expected to be OK for the start of exhibition games, according to the Washington Times.

The Nationals play an exhibition against Georgetown on Friday, with Harper playing right field and hitting third.

Harper is rated by many as the top prospect in baseball. He hit .297/.392/.501 between Class A and Double-A last season, with 14 of his 17 minor-league homers coming at the Class A level. Harper hit .318/.423/.554 with Class A Hagerstown and .256/.329/.395 with Double-A Harrisburg.

Manager Davey Johnson has stated publicly that he'd like to see Harper get a chance to start the season at the major-league level. It appears he'll get a chance at showing his wares during spring training.

Johan Santana's progress in spring training is going to continue to be a huge storyline because he was once the best pitcher in baseball and if he's able to return to form, the Mets will enter the season with a huge boost in psyche. Thursday, he took another big step forward. The left-handed ace faced hitters for the first time since September.

“I felt pretty good,” Santana said (Associated Press). “I was able to throw for the first time having hitters standing up at the plate and swinging the bat. It was pretty good.

“I was told I was going to be challenged from those guys and I had to step up and do my thing. I was able to come in and throw my fastballs inside and see how they react and to be able to throw my changeup. Overall, it was good.” (AP)

Santana will next start against the Cardinals in a split-squad game Tuesday. He's scheduled to throw either two innings or 40 pitches, whatever he hits first.

• Star Rays third baseman Evan Longoria was hit in the hand with a pitch during an intrasquad game. That's scary, because hand bones are routinely broken when hitters are struck with a pitched ball in baseball. Longoria and the Rays dodged a bullet, though, as X-rays were negative and it's merely a bruise. Longoria is listed as day-to-day. (TampaBay.com)

• Marlins ace Josh Johnson missed the majority of last season with shoulder issues. He threw 37 pitches in a bullpen session Thursday and reports that he feels "good" and is "tired of the screen in front of" him. He'll get his chance to throw without the L-screen Monday, when he starts Miami's spring opener against the Cardinals. (Fish Tank blog)

• Brewers starting pitcher Shaun Marcum has some "tenderness" in his right (throwing) shoulder and will back off his throwing program a bit. Worry not, though, the Brewers say because Marcum was already going to dial it back this spring after having such a big workload last season -- only two years removed from Tommy John surgery.

"We don't need throw 20 innings in Spring Training," Marcum said (MLB.com). "That's pointless. Spring Training is so long for everybody, by the end of it you're wasting pitches and wasting time."

• Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche was kept out of workouts Thursday with a mild left ankle sprain, but it sounds like a precautionary measure.

"I don't want to flare it up any more than it is," said LaRoche (MASNSports.com). "There's no point right now risking dragging this thing out for another week if we can knock it out in a couple days. I would rather get some throwing in, get some swings and just try to stay off of it as far as running."

Phenom outfielder Bryce Harper -- the top prospect for the up-and-coming Nationals -- has decided to delete his Twitter account.

"I was just over it. Got bored and decided to leave," Harper said Wednesday morning (MASNSports.com).

It's hard to tell if he's being totally up front, because it's possible he just got sick of all the hate. Plenty of players in the recent past have deleted accounts due to fan abuse -- Mets catcher Josh Thole comes immediately to mind as one example.

Harper has received some backlash for tweets he's sent, including him openly cheering for the Yankees in the ALDS last season. He also defended his favorite teams (a blatant fair weather variety: Yankees, Duke basketball, USC football, Cowboys and Lakers) recently on Twitter in a few exchanges with fans. Harper himself was polite and came across as not being bothered, but at some point the constant taunts surely gets to be a bit much.

Earlier this week, manager Davey Johnson mentioned social media use to his ballclub:

"We warned them about Tweeter (sic) and Facebook and all kinds of sites," Johnson said (MASNSports.com). "Nothing's secret anymore. I did point to a couple guys and said, 'Now you listen to this.' I'm (not) mentioning any names, but you know probably who."

Harper told reporters his Twitter account deletion had nothing to do with Johnson's warning, though.

Personally, I don't see any great reason for an athlete to bother with Twitter. Sure, there's plenty of adulation to go around -- if they're really desperate for more of it -- but the general public can be pretty collectively brutal, personal attacks and all. Some of the stuff crosses lines normal people would never even come close to crossing. Not only that, there's the issue of accidentally saying something stupid and getting raked over the coals for that.

It's a total guess, but I can't see how the good can cancel out the bad for an athlete on Twitter.

Spring training always has its share of bumps and bruises, along with legitimate injuries, but it often takes a little time to figure out which is which.

Here's a brief roundup of some of Tuesday's injuries from around baseball.

• Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman could miss two weeks after his right knee popped out of place as he tried to scoop a low throw at first base.

"I was just doing pick drills and the knee gave out," Freeman told reporters (via MLB.com). "The kneecap went this way and I came back in. When I did this when I was playing in Triple-A, it took me two weeks. So that is what we are going on."

Freeman said he had a similar injury in 2010 and he could have come back after a week, but the team didn't want to push it.

• Speaking of the Braves,right-hander Tommy Hanson will retake his concussion test on Thursday and could throwing to live batters again that same day if he passes it. Hanson has been cleared for conditioning and throwing, but not for full workouts yet. He suffered a concussion in a car accident on Feb. 20. (MLB.com)

• Mariners outfielder Franklin Gutierrez, who has been dogged by injuries and illness each of the last two seasons, left Mariners camp on a cart Tuesday.

Seattle manager Eric Wedge told reporters Gutierrez hurt something in the pectoral region and had an MRI. The Mariners are still waiting on word of the results of the MRI. (Seattle Times)

• Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth was held out of Tuesday's workout due to back spasms.

Johnson said he didn't expect Werth to play in either of the Nationals' first two exhibition games, but he didn't plan on using too many of the Washington regulars in those games anyway. (NatsInsider.com)

• Rays rookie left-hander Matt Moore missed a second day with an abdomen strain, but Rays manager Joe Maddon told reporters the team isn't worried, they're just being cautious.

"It's an over-conservative thing we're doing right now," Maddon told reporters. "I really believe the next day or two, he should be fine." (St. Petersburg Times)

• Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard is expected back in camp on Wednesday after having his Achilles tendon examined in Baltimore on Monday. The Phillies said they wouldn't have word about his status until he returns. (CSNPhilly.com)

• Joba Chamberlain, who underwent Tommy John surgery last year, threw off the mound for the first time Tuesday since the surgery. He threw 16 pitches and said he felt good afterward. He hopes to return in June. (Star-Ledger)